"It's about incest; and it's about murder; and you know all those good things. And if you can picture it in your mind, the third song takes place in a jail cell. So this is our own little mini-opera here." - Eddie Vedder, 6/18/92

this is the three song trilogy by Pearl Jam. the songs in order are Alive, Once, and Footsteps. they depict the life of a boy from childhood to adulthood. Alive about the life of a child who finds out his father is actually his stepfather at the age of 13 . When the boy finds this out, he becomes angry, violent , and filled with rage towards his mother. This is loosely based on Eddie Vedders life because it turns out his mother and father divorced when he was one and didn't know until he was 13 when his mother told him. he had actually met his father before but never knew they were related. He thought of the fact that he never knew it and imagined it as a sad thing and a curse. When fans began to sing it and visualize it as a happy thing and a bringing of new life, he thought of the curse as lifted from him. In the continuation of Once, the boy is now a man and his anger fuels him to go on a rampage of killing and rape before being caught. Finally, in Footsteps, the boy is on death row now and doesn't lose any anger towards his mother and feels no remorse before being executed.

The mamasan story by Pearl Jam is an EPIC trilogy!!

I love how Eddie V. put his life into the songs. Pearl Jam is amazing!!!